The ESSENCE project intends to improve employability opportunities for HE students by stimulating soft skills development. The project objective is to maximize their engagement in the labour market by offering professional development paths that go beyond formal HE training. In order to meet the expectations of entrepreneurs and recruiters connected with the most desirable soft skills, the courses will be based on the demand-driven employers’ perspective.
The ESSENCE Website is now online at http://projectessence.eu/, providing specific info on project aims, activities and results. The platform will contain all the Project’s information, deliverables and outputs.
The OER Platform, developed by IWS, (Internet Web Solutions) will be constantly updated by the partnership as a whole during the project implementation.
ESSENCE Website is available in seven languages (English, Polish, Croatian, Italian, Latvian, Bulgarian and Spanish) and is composed of multiple sections freely available to all navigators.
The main sections of the website are the following:
HOME: the section introduces users to the ESSENCE platform by highlighting the four main results of the Project:
PROJECT: The ESSENCE project intends to improve employability opportunities for HE students by stimulating soft skills development. The project objective is to maximize their engagement in the labour market by offering professional development paths that go beyond formal HE training. In order to meet the expectations of entrepreneurs and recruiters connected with the most desirable soft skills, the courses will be based on the demand-driven employers’ perspective.
PARTNERS: Describes the Partners involved in the ESSENCE Project.
OER PLATFORM: The ESSENCE project will create its own OER platform which will be translated into 7 languages to reach different international target groups: students, trainers and teachers who specialize in employment, business consultants with solid experience in the area of HR and PR, entrepreneurs and managing directors.
MAPPING: Intellectual Output 2 intends to link soft skills with employability. Mapping the most desirable soft skills among employers within the EU countries. This will be done by analyzing the sources and basic research (100 questionnaires distributed among the private sector and business associations) and then identifying the 4-5 most wanted soft skills among job applicants. The ESSENCE project is a specific response to the needs of the labour market, which are in line with the interests of university students, HR specialists and employers.
TOOLKIT: Intellectual Output 3 responds to the needs specified in the application by filling the educational gap among candidates present in the labour market. The state-of-the-art analysis shows that there is a need to provide operational and user-friendly training resources for future managers who may be excluded from the labour market due to a lack of adequately developed soft skills.
GUIDELINES: Intellectual Output 4 consists of two components, guidelines for the use of the project's results and the results beyond the scope of the partnership, including geographic scope. The guidelines will aim to mainstream project materials and sustain their dissemination after Erasmus + co-financing ends, and a soft skills manifesto aimed at universities to increase student employability and empower them in the business community and organizational environment.
GLOSSARY: Will define and explain the main terms related to Soft skills development.
NEWS: To remain always updated with ESSENCE latest developments.
ASSOCIATES: in order to involve as many Associated Partners as possible and spread the word about ESSENCE to end-users, targets, general public and ultimate beneficiaries.
Essence University of Economics - Varna team is actively contributing to the ESSENCE Project and is set to disseminate its results. The team is currently conducting research on soft skills development and employability in Bulgaria, by surveying local companies and studying good practices. Writing a report on Bulgaria and focusing on best practices will increase the added value of the project. The team will further develop training course materials in partnership with the the other universities in the project and conduct customised company trainings.
ESSENCE is managed by eight Partners from seven countries, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Spain, representing different backgrounds, and is co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission.
For further information on ESSENCE and University of economics- Varna:
https://www.facebook.com/Essence-107956864669490/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBkiHG_WcmI0x7lBCknLwPA
04 Jun 2021
